dreamincubatorfandomcom-20200213-history
Sagwa: The Movie/Tropes
* Absentee Actor: The Sleeve Dogs are barely in this film, but when they do appear; they just make snarky comments and Dongwa just flirts with Pang (the one with the red bows in her hair). * And Starring: ** In the opening credits: *** And Holly G. Frankel as Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat ** In the closing credits' list for the voice actors: *** And Stevie Nicks as Hun-Hun ** In the closing credits' list for the live-action actors: *** And Dennis Anderson in his acting debut as Officer David O'Harry * The trailer has this: :: Announcer: "And introducing John Wayne Sace..." :: Sagwa Miao: "Don't forget me! :: Announcer: "Oh, and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, too!" * Artistic License – Biology: Wong Ton's parents being a dog and a cat is this. Dogs and cats cannot procreate. * Ascended Extra: Wong Ton and Ling from "Dongwa's Best Friend" in the cartoon have major roles in the plot as they are in charge of making sure the Miao kittens return safely. * Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: ** The words "Darn", "Damn", "Hell", and references to Chinese folk religion were added to bump the rating up to PG and to get the regular fans of Amy Tan's work to attend screenings. Dongwa saying "Holy sh**!", Nai-Nai saying "I'll send you to hell!", and Felipe's line "Work damn it, work!" were also added to further the PG rating. The MPAA PG rating ended up warning for "Mild language and cartoon violence." Despite this, the film was still marketed as a family adventure film... and was also rated U in the United Kingdom despite all of this and the cut used containing the original ending with Sheegwa getting shot. ** According to a interview with Gerald Casale, said ending with Sheegwa getting shot was added to bump the rating up even further and to add a excuse for Mama Miao to use magic (she's revealed to have the ability to make her drawings to come to life in "The Cat and the Wind"). ** Oddly enough, despite the film including profanity to bump up the ratings and almost including someone getting shot for the same reason, one of the songs in the soundtrack, Rock You Like a Hurricane by Scorpions, was edited to censor the lines "The bi*ch is hungry, she needs to tell" and "Lust is in cages till storm breaks loose", which were changed to "The child is hungry, she needs to tell" and "It is in cages till storm breaks loose" * Award-Bait Song: ** This film has a couple: *** "Every Day" by Stevie Nicks, who voiced Hun-Hun in this film. *** "My Friend/Love" by Hiro Rocko, which plays during the montage when we first enter Sagwa's world. It was nominated for a Best Original Song Golden Globe award. Hiro ended up re-recording it in various languages for the foreign dubs. * Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: ** Some of the scenes of Felipe and Jason racing around in the Felipe II count as this. * Bowdlerise: ** The PBS Kids and Sprout airings of the movie, aside from adding some deleted scenes, edits the movie: *** Dongwa saying "Holy sh**!" was changed to him saying "Oh no!" *** Nai-Nai's "I'll send you to hell!" line was changed to her saying "I'll send you away from here!" *** Any instances of the word "Damn" were changed to "Darn" *** Any instances of the word "Hell" were changed to "Heck" *** Felipe's line "Work damn it, work!" was changed to "Come on, stupid thing, work!" * Catch-Phrase: In addition to the Magistrate's usual "I've been inspired!" catchphrase and the return of Fu-Fu's "Jai-jen, my friend!" catchphrase, Felipe has "Man, that's cool as a cucumber made of ice!" and Jason has "Yes, I know." * California Doubling: Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Montreal, and Lousiana double for the fictional U.S. city of Quad City. * Cel Shading: A digital ink-and-paint variant was used for the Roger Rabbit Effect used to bring the cats into the real world (see below). * Deleted Scene: ** The film's climatic mall scene originally involved Sheegwa getting caught in the way of gunfire as the reason for her death, and not the explosion that ensues in the regular cut. As for the explosion's cause in that cut? Felipe drove the Felipe II through a propane fueling station, nearly getting him and the vehicle blown to smithereens trying to escape the blast. The scenes were cut after test audiences complained that it was too violent and sad for a Sesame Workshop project. * Destroy the Product Placement: ** In the foreign cut, the Felipe II destroys a filling station in the parking lot of the mall, causing the gigantic explosion that kills Sheegwa in the regular cut. The tanks have the Blue Rhino logo on them. ** An Amtrak train (portrayed by both a Trenes de Buenos Aires trainset painted in Phase III Amtrak colors and a HO-scale model of that temporary repaint) derails when the Felipe II bumps into it. * Dueling Dubs: ** Two Greek dubs were made: one with the cast from the ALTER Channel's dub of the series; and one made using Greek celebrities voicing the characters. The former was released on VCD by Modern Times and can be found on the Australian DVD as an alternate audio track, whilst the latter was released in cinemas and aired a couple times on Greek pay TV. * Easter Egg: ** The 2003 DVD from Warner Home Video and PBS Kids Video has six separate audio tracks: English, Spanish (Latin American), French (Quebec), English (Dolby Digital), the Production Team Commentary, and one that is mostly blank... except for some parts, which we shall list some of here: When Felipe bumps the Felipe II into a train, we hear Dennis Anderson narrating an anecdote of meeting Allen Gaines, the creator of the Orange Blossom Express pulling truck, as if it were a Thomas & Friends episode. * End-of-Series Awareness: ** At the end of the film, Sheegwa wonders if they'll have more adventures. Sagwa says "I don't think we'll have any more big adventures... but someday there will be time for lots more. Just not any today." This moment also acts as a Sequel Hook, as the scene was replayed at the start of a PBS promo for Sagwa's Siamese Life, with the announcer declaring "That day... is now!". * Grand Finale: For Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. Even then, this film's sequels formed a sort of loose Post-Script Season with Sagwa's Siamese Life serving as a sequel series (ignoring the Sequel Hook implied in the PBS promo for Siamese Life). * Heel Face Turn: Wong Ton, who was a Jerk A** bully in his first appearance, is revealed to have acted like that because he is interspecies and didn't want to get bullied for it (his father is a Pekingese dog, his mother is a cat). * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: ** Dongwa's Jerk with a Heart of Gold qualities are brought into full extent when Sheegwa is killed. He sounds even more sad and depressed in the cut where she was shot instead of getting killed by the explosion. * Obvious Stunt Double: ** During some scenes, the 13-year old Chinese-American Jason magically turns into an athletic-looking white man whenever a stunt is called for. ** The puppeteers for the cats had stunt doubles in the form of little people in fursuits. Thus, when Lik-Lik jumps off a moving train onto the Felipe II's back, we can see that Lik-Lik has essentially become anthro. ** During Budge's dive from the Felipe II, you can clearly see that he has magically turned into a 20-something professional diver ( to be exact). * On the Next: After Felipe was added into Zoboomafoo: Jungle Tracks!, the film was edited to include a post-credits stinger where Chris & Martin appear and announce a basic plot summary of that film and afterwards a card reading "JASON'S FRIEND FELIPE ORTEGA WILL RETURN IN THE NEXT PBS KIDS MOVIE - ZOBOOMAFOO: JUNGLE TRACKS!" is shown. This happens in both the foreign and regular cuts (and the TV cut, but before the credits), but the leading-up Sequel Hook was not shown in the foreign cut as it was made before that scene was filmed, and the Stinger was simply slapped on to it. * Roger Rabbit Effect: ** The cats were brought into the real-life partially through this trope (puppetry was also used). A digital-ink-and-paint version of cel-shading was used for this, and the combination of puppetry and this is actually kinda convincing. * Sequel Hook: ** More like Another PBS Kids Film Hook with this film. A scene filmed and added to the film whilst production was wrapping up reveals that Felipe is leaving for Animal Junction once the 2 weeks in which the film is taking place over have gone and went, this was done after the decision was made to include Felipe in Zoboomafoo: Jungle Tracks!. There's also a Stinger where Chris & Martin announce the aforementioned film followed by a card announcing Felipe's return in it. * So My Kids Can Watch: ** Dennis Anderson did this film for three reasons: money, Clear Channel insisting he do a movie whilst their planned Monster Jam TV movie was stalling in the production stages (we'd link the Cancelled Movies Wiki article, however we don't wanna expose anyone to broflakes whining over the Ghostbusters remake), and because his daughter Krysten really liked Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. * Stinger: As mentioned above and way above, the film ends with Chris & Martin Kratt from Zoboomafoo announcing the summary of Zoboomafoo: Jungle Tracks! followed by a card announcing Felipe's return in the film. * Video Full of Film Clips: ** Stevie Nicks' video for "Every Day" had a new version made and released which is just the regular video with clips from the movie spliced in. ** Darlene Delos Reyes' video for "I'm Ready" features her performing the song whilst prancing around at Kool Kartoon Kingdom with celebrity cameos and clips from this film and the show it was based on. ** Savage Garden's second music video for "I Want You" was re-edited to include clips from the original Sagwa show and the film after it was used in the film. ** The video for "Cat Lady" by the Insane Clown Posse features Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope goofing around at a elementary school with a group of Juggalos with not only clips from the movie shown, but original animation featuring Dongwa and the Alley Cats dancing to the song. Their video for "Homies" also got the Sagwa re-edit treatment like the other videos. * WTH, Casting Agency?: ** The Insane Clown Posse's contributions to the soundtrack is a music variation of this. Good lord. They made an explicit version of "Cat Lady" which was issued as a hidden track on certain 2003 pressings of The Wraith: Shangri-La (a clean version of "Homies" was recorded for the soundtrack). Category:Tropes Category:Sagwa: The Movie